


The 5 Times Ellis Was Interrupted and the 1 Time He Wasn’t

by katsudonice



Category: Left 4 Dead, Left 4 Dead 2
Genre: I'm ashamed, Kellis - Freeform, M/M, Nellis, but nothing sexual happens, ellis is underage in the first chapter, mostly focuses on keith/ellis
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2015-07-01
Updated: 2015-07-02
Packaged: 2018-04-07 02:08:28
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 2
Words: 2,519
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/4245501
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/katsudonice/pseuds/katsudonice
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>5 + 1 focusing on Ellis finishing the stories he tells in his head, because no one ever lets him finish. Or, Keith is Ellis' dumbass boyfriend pre-infection and Ellis likes to talk about him.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Marriage

**Author's Note:**

> Would that someone who was a better writer write what was in my head.  
> 

_“I ever tell you about the time my buddy Keith got married? 'Course not... that's a trick question. He never got married. Ya know you hear about those runaway brides right? Well, Keith was a runaway groom. And on his wedding day... It all started when...”_

_“Ellis? Is now the best time?”_  

* * *

 

            It was never the best time for Ellis to tell yet another story about Keith and honestly Ellis didn’t mind. Some stories weren’t really meant to be told and this particular story started when he was just six years old.

            “I ain’t gonna marry no girl.”

 

Ellis blinked, looking up at his friend. Keith was older by a whole two years so he must know what he’s talking about. Keith knew everything about everything! At least that’s what his curly little head told him. “Why not? Innit what you’re ‘possed to do?”

 

Keith shook his head, messy red hair flopping about. “Naw. My Uncle Buck ain’t marry a woman. He married, uh, he married Uncle Steve. Well, that’s what Mama said I gotta call him now.” He reached out and pushed the toy truck in his hand into Ellis’ with the proper “boom!” sound effect.

 

            The five year old thought this through. “Well who you gonna marry if you aint gonna marry a girl?”

 

            A big, gappy smile spread over Keith’s face. “I’m gonna marry you, duh! Mama said you gotta marry yer best friend, and ain’t that you?” He leaned forward and planted a wet smooch on Ellis’ cheek, laughing squeakily as the younger boy tried to scrub it away.

 

            “I think I hear my mam calling!” Ellis said quickly, grabbing his toy truck up and dashing home. Maybe marrying Keith wouldn’t be so bad. They could play trucks and fish and… Yeah! Marrying Keith would be just fine. Girls were gross anyway.

 

            His father, however, didn’t have the same idea as little Ellis. “I better never hear that faggot shit come out of your mouth again!” And then the hits came and came until he was a sobbing, confused mess and his mama was screaming and he didn’t see his father again after he left that night. All the years after that he never asked where he had gone.

 

 

 

* * *

 

 

            “Why you marryin’ her if you don’t love her?”

 

Nearly ten years later the pair lay on a blanket in the bed of Keith’s old truck, slowly making their way through a twelve pack of cheap beer pilfered from Keith’s father. It wasn’t even cold. This, Keith had declared, was what he wanted for a bachelor party and Ellis could never say no to Keith.

 

“She’s knocked up.” Keith was no longer the fresh faced, chubby little redheaded boy he had been. No, he was tall and lean and already sprinkled with dozens of scars and burns from their antics. “And I gotta do the right thing.”  He quickly gulped down the rest of his beer and tossed the empty can behind him before popping open another. 

 

Ellis was quiet for a while as he stared up at the sky. He too had grown from pudgy five year old to long limbed, awkward sixteen year old with too long curls and too big dreams. “Don’t seem right to marry somebody ya don’t love.” He wasn’t really sure why his whispered it. “I mean, Krista’s a nice girl and all, but just don’t seem right.” He turned his head in time to see Keith’s jaw clench.

 

“A lotta shit in the world ain’t right, Ellis, but sometimes you just gotta make do.” Another can was tossed aside and another cracked open. “I fucked up and I gotta live with it.” His voice was rough, angry, and cracked just barely.

 

Ellis wasn’t stupid, a bit naïve maybe, but he wasn’t stupid. He knew at that moment that he should let the conversation drop and talk about something else, but sometimes his mouth ran faster than his brain. “But what if ya fall in love with somebody else?”

 

He expected his friend to hit him or yell or even get up and walk away. The last thing he expected was for Keith to start laughing and laughing and laughing until tears streamed down his face and he held his stomach as if in pain. “Yer so fucking stupid, El.” He wheezed sitting up to properly catch his breath. “Ain’t no love in my future, awlright?”

 

The younger teen sat up in a right huff. “Why ya gotta laugh at me, huh? Thass a real question! Ya could fall in love and then yer stuck with Krista!” He had thought that the last thing he could expect was for Keith to laugh at him, but it turned out that was the second to last thing he could expect.

 

Keith’s thin lips were dry and hot and soft and gentle on his own. Rough, calloused hands gently held his head in place before those lips disappeared. Keith’s hazel eyes were sad and just a little glassy from drinking. “Ain’t not love in my future.” He repeated lowly, hands dropping and face tensing as if waiting to be hit.

 

Ellis stared, blue eyes wide. He had been kissed before, sure. Hell he’d even gotten to second base more than once, but never with… With a _guy._ Keith, “I fucked your girl” Keith, was a queer?  Ellis did not raise his fists or move at all. “What?” he rasped, voice suddenly leaving him.

“Come on. I told yer ma I’d have you home safe.” The elder teen hopped out of the bed of the truck and got into the cab without so much as a glance at Ellis.

 

The drive home was awkward, only the sound of the engine and the wind whipping through the open windows to keep them company. When they pulled up to the house Keith turned the truck off and was silent for several awkward moment.

 

“I shouldn’t have done what I did, El.” Still he could not look at the other young man. “If we could forget…Blame it on the beer? Yer my best friend. I ain’t gonna lose you like that.” He looked over now, hazel eyes pleading and Ellis could only offer a goofy smile.

 

“Shit, man, ain’t nothing. Yer just nervous is all.” He clapped his friend on the back roughly. “See yad in the morning, awlright?” Keith gave a sharp nod, but did not return the smile as Ellis headed inside to be scolded by his mother for the beer on his breath.

 

 

* * *

 

 

The day before his wedding Keith, drunk, managed to sneak through Ellis’ bedroom window, and honestly was lucky Ellis hadn’t hit him over the head with a baseball bat like the last time he had pulled the same stunt.

 

“Man, what the fuck are ya doing?” Ellis hissed sleepily, watching Keith slowly tug off his shoes.

 

To his credit Keith managed to stay upright as he dropped his shoes aside and then tugged off his shirt. “I aint…I ain’t gonna marry no girl.” He slurred, blinking slowly in the dark of Ellis’ room. He stumbled to Ellis’ bed, dropping down next to him without invitation. They had shared a bed before, as boys, and Keith had slept over many a time when his parents kicked him out of the house for coming home drunk or high or hurt. It had been years, however, since they had shared a bed.

 

“Get onto the damn floor, man.” Ellis complained, trying to push him away. He had not forgotten the kiss. No. He had spent far too much time thinking about it. Thinking about the look in Keith’ eyes, the taste of his lips, the touch of his hands. He felt like a fucking woman. ‘I ain’t no queer.’  He said it over and over in his head like a mantra, but couldn’t convince himself. Women were great. Their soft bodies and tits and smiles… But he could appreciate men. Nothing wrong with looking, right? That didn’t make him queer.

 

“Shhh…” Keith mumbled, tugging Ellis down to lay with him. He wrapped his arms around him, hands slipping under the younger man’s shirt and just resting there. “Go ta sleep.” He mumbled, pressing his nose into Ellis’ sleep tussled curls.

 

Ellis squirmed weakly, but Keith had always been stronger than he was and if he was going to be honest with himself he wasn’t sure he wanted to get away that badly. “You smell like a bar.” He complained, tugging his Jimmy Gibbs Jr. comforter up over them.

 

“Mmm… ‘Member when we was real little? Before your daddy left?” Keith drawled, placing a kiss behind Ellis’ ear. He seemed to take the hitch in the other man’s breath as an answer. “I said I was gonna marry my best friend.” Another kiss. “M’gonna marry you one day, Ellis.” And then nothing more but the slight snuffle-snore of a man who had had too much to drink.

 

* * *

 

Somehow no one was surprised when Keith didn’t show up for his wedding, and somehow Ellis was even less surprised to find him sneaking through his bedroom window again that night.


	2. Peaches

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Man, I ain't never been in a sugarcane field before. I mean, I've seen 'em an' all, but I've never had any reason to go in one. Now, you go in a peach grove, and you find all kinds of cool shit!

_"Man, I ain't never been in a sugarcane field before. I mean, I've seen 'em an' all, but I've never had any reason to go in one. Now, you go in a peach grove, and you find all kinds of cool shit! Like this one time, I was in a―"_

_“We ain’t got time for this, Ellis.”_

_“Okay…”_

 

* * *

 

“Aww shit!” Ellis panted, forehead flopping down onto the soft grass. “It got all up on my shirt!”

 

His partner laughed, deep from within his belly as he draped himself over Ellis’ back. “It’ll wash out n’ ya’ll got another in the truck.” He placed a kiss over the sweaty nape of the slighter man’s neck before tugging up Ellis’ jeans followed by his own, but he didn’t move from his position on his back.

 

“And ya never complained before. In fact, ya like to beg me to shoot up yer ass.” He laughed as his partner thrashed under him. “Fuck me fuck me! Don’t pull out!” He mocked in his best impression of Ellis. This earned him a sudden elbow to the nose.

 

“I told ya not to say shit like that!”  Ellis snarled, pushing him off of his back and sitting up. His face was hot and red and that wasn’t just caused by their earlier exertions or the hot and humid Georgia summer. “Why d’ya have to be such a prick?”

 

He looked down with narrowed blue eyes at Keith, who had managed to roll onto his back while holding onto his nose. Luckily it wasn’t bleeding or broken. “I was just playin’.” He too sat up and reached for Ellis’ hand, only to have the searching hand swatted away. “Come on… Don’t be mad, sugar.”

 

“Don’t you fuckin’ ‘sugar’ me, asshole.”

 

That ripped another laugh from Keith. He was always laughing and smiling, especially around his Ellis. Three years into their… Well they had never really talked about what it was they were doing. They didn’t hide it, but it was one of those open secrets that no one talked about. They had lived together in a shitty one-bedroom apartment since the day Ellis graduated high school and everyone Keith worked with called Ellis his “boy.” All Ellis knew was that he loved this big, reckless ginger haired asshole enough to put up with his assholery for the past three years. Hell, even his beloved Mama had given Keith the “If you hurt my son I’ll hurt you” talk.

 

Despite all of that, they never talked about it. There was an understanding that Ellis was Keith’s and Keith was Ellis’ and they were best friends that sometimes also fucked under peach trees and against walls and in trucks and in the shower and…Well… That wasn’t the point.

 

Keith leaned back against the peach tree they were under and tugged the still pouting Ellis into his side. He had dragged Ellis out to his uncle’s peach grove on a fine Saturday afternoon that could have been spent fishing or fucking or drinking to fix the man’s tractor and they had gotten sidetracked from that goal.

 

“Don’t be mad, sugar.” He drawled, running his fingers through Ellis’ curls, not really minding the sweat he found there. “You know I just like to tease.” When that got no response beyond a huff he tugged off his hat, a blue and white affair that he wore everywhere. He claimed it made him look cool, but really it protected his poor ginger head from the sun. Ellis hated it and so Keith just had to tug it down over the brown haired boy’s head. “You gonna pout like that when I bought you a present?”

 

Ellis peered up at him, blue eyes narrowed in suspicion. “You don’t get paid til’ next week.” They both worked, but things were still tough for them. It wasn’t so bad really. They had their apartment and Keith’s old truck. Ellis worked at a local mechanic’s shop and Keith worked for his father’s towing company. They got by well enough and any time Ellis even hinted at desiring something Keith would always find the money to make it happen.

 

Keith grinned, showing off a broken tooth. He’d gotten into a bar fight and well Ellis had wanted to see Jimmy Gibbs more than Keith wanted to see a dentist so he’d never gotten it fixed. He reached into his jeans and pulled out a set of keys that were neither his car keys nor his house keys. “Well, me an’ Dave an’ Paul were talking,” he began, dropping the keys into Ellis’ confused hand, “and you had said you wanted to, so we got some money together and bought a garage. You remember that one we saw a couple weeks ago? Ours now.”

 

He waited patiently for Ellis to throw his arms around his neck and kiss him and start his characteristic excited chatter, but instead Ellis just stared at him, blue eyes searching his face for an answer to a question Keith didn’t know.

 

“Keith, how did you afford this? If we can’t pay rent aga-“

Keith raised his hand to cover Ellis’ mouth quickly, “Ellis. El. Baby, I ain’t that stupid…Not twice at least.” He dropped his hand, letting it slide around to squeeze the back of his mate’s neck. “I got a loan from my dad.  Ain’t no need to worry about that, awlright?”

 

He smiled again, leaning forward and placing the gentlest of kisses on full lips. “You listen to me, Ellis, you and me ain’t never gonna be rich. That’s just how things are, but you will never, ever want for nothin’.”    

 

Finally a smile broke on Ellis’ face and finally he threw his arms around Keith’s neck. “You’re such a fuckin’ fag.” He murmured as he dove in for a kiss.

“Only for you, baby.” Keith laughed.

 

_And that’s the story of how Keith crashed his uncle’s tractor and nearly burned down a peach grove._

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Look all I'm saying is Ellis deserves a perfect goob and Keith is a perfect goob. Fight me.


End file.
